محمدجواد غلامرضا کاشی

In the present research, the views of Seyyed Hossein Nasr on the issue of recognizing religious minorities are examined. Recognition is a human necessity, the absence of which prevents different groups from benefiting from the economic and political advantages of citizenship. This idea, which has gained special importance in the modern definition of social justice, plays a fundamental role in the exclusion and acceptance of different groups. In studying Nasr’s works, his perspective on the share of religious minorities in the essentials of recognition is questioned. According to him, a wide range of followers of religions have a good cultural and social status, and most religious minorities living in the Islamic world possess the most important elements of recognition. However, in Nasr’s thought, equal rights for followers of religions are not emphasized, and despite the emphasis on the importance of comprehensive human rights, the theoretical resolution of this issue is left to Muslim scholars. This article, in the theoretical and conceptual refinement of the idea of recognition, owes much to the theories of Charles Taylor and methodologically uses the Oxford interpretive model.

Historians and political scientists have long debated the key influences of the Founding Fathers of the United States in establishing the government and drafting the Constitution. Thinkers like John Locke, Montesquieu, Algernon Sidney, and James Harrington are frequently cited, yet the influence of Machiavelli’s ideas has often been overlooked. Only a few scholars, such as Walter McDougall and John Pocock, have briefly suggested the possibility that the Founding Fathers were influenced by Machiavelli’s ideas, while others, like Anthony DiMaggio, have approached the topic solely from the perspective of foreign policy and empire. Given Machiavelli’s significance as a political theorist, it is crucial to explore his potential influence on the Founding Fathers’ thoughts in establishing the American Republic. Such an examination is important because it reveals how Machiavellian principles may have shaped state-building efforts and contributed to the stability and longevity of the U.S. government and constitution.

The present study used a qualitative, text-based documentary approach and analyzed library–documentary sources to demonstrate how Machiavelli’s ideas had influenced the views of the Founding Fathers. A close examination of Chapters 2–8 of The Discourses: Book 1 was conducted to reveal Machiavelli’s influence. These chapters are considered essential because they focus on the organization of political regimes. Four of these chapters are particularly significant, as they directly address the prudent establishment of a regime and constitution, offering guidance to future founders.

The analysis revealed that the Founding Fathers were significantly influenced by Machiavelli in their understanding of human nature and the formulation of the constitution. They drew on his ideas to create a mixed regime. The Founding Fathers were also guided by Machiavelli in their approach to foreign policy, their pursuit of empire, and their definition of the role of the people as defenders of freedom and guardians of the constitution. Consequently, some of the most fundamental aspects of the United States of American were rooted in Machiavelli’s theories and perspectives, even if they were not openly acknowledged. The durability and stability of the U.S. Constitution, in contrast to the instability and variability of the French Constitution, can be attributed to the Founding Fathers’ reliance on the insights of a thinker who had gained his wisdom through “long experience of modern things and the continuous readings of ancient [things]” (Machiavelli, 1989, p. 1); who had opposed fictitious principalities and republics that existed only in theory (Ibid, p. 93). In contrast, the French pursued abstract concepts and implemented purely theoretical ideas, guided by a philosopher whose “true masterpiece” was referred to as “Reveries of the Solitary Walker” (Rousseau, 1782, p. 12). The utopian republic they aimed to establish had to remain a mere figment of the imagination. According to the findings,  

According to the results, the Founding Fathers’ views aligned with and were shaped by Machiavelli’s theories. The findings can provide a new foundation for American studies and Machiavelli studies, and pave the way for further research. Given that the theoretical foundations underlying the establishment of the United States of America have been neglected in academic discussions in Iran, the present study can be considered a pioneering effort to address the Founding Fathers’ thoughts and the influence of other philosophers on the establishment of the U.S. government. Furthermore, by focusing on the founding principles of America, the results of the study can lead to a more realistic approach toward the U.S. and the adoption of more thoughtful strategies in foreign policy. This study does not claim that the Founding Fathers relied solely on Machiavellian theories while disregarding other intellectuals. Rather, it aimed to demonstrate that dismissing or denying Machiavelli’s influence on the establishment of the United States is both unjustified and unwise, despite the Founding Fathers not explicitly referencing his ideas. Nevertheless, by focusing on two fundamental texts, the present inquiry sought to provide meaningful insights without undermining the results. A more precise and detailed understanding of the topic requires an examination of numerous documents and extensive debates that took place during the Constitutional Convention until the adoption of the Constitution in the thirteen state assemblies.

The present article aims to trace the understanding of Iran's collective identity in historical reference to the rationality of schools. The theoretical guide of the research is derived from the conceptual apparatus of Michel Foucault, and the methodological logic of the research is through the genealogical approach and Foucauldian discourse analysis. The findings of the study indicate that "historical events" and "multiple developments" during the "confrontation" at the beginning of the confrontation with the civilization of the West made Iran susceptible to multiple situations. Modern education, on the one hand, arose such a desire from within the society that here education is mainly focused on progress in the socio-economic fields and does not have a relation with the collective identity. On the other hand, the structural encounter with the Western world, the mainly military necessity of the government, and the health crisis led to the understanding and "technical rationality" of knowledge. The rationality that later at the end of the century, with the rebellion of the "progressive discourse" from its initial principles and the problematization of collective identity, put modern education at the service of "the impossibility of open collective identity."

The purpose of this research qualitative studies meta- synthesis related to hijab in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. The source of the research was from the 811 bases during the 1357- 1399 in two scientific sites. At first stage, 76 sources and in the second 53 sources were found based on content matching. The quality of the sources as well as the credibility and reliability of the findings were examined. As results, two general themes of "traditional hijab" and "modern hijab" were extracted. The traditional hijab was consisting of the characteristics, function and solutions to strengthen the hijab, the supporting arguments from religious teachings, the reasons for the tendency to wear, how to deal with non-observance of the hijab in order to strengthen the desire to wear The consequences of bad hijab and how to portray it in domestic websites compared to modern hijab, considering the meaning-making axes such as the meaning, shape, types of hijab, supporting arguments, the causes and contexts of bad hijab and how to deal with it, the status of the hijab and how to portray the hijab in Foreign sites were placed at two ends of a spectrum. In the light of existing relationships between their different levels, the "conceptual model of hijab" was abstracted.

This article examines the weakness of society in formal education policies in Iran as a threat. In different contexts and periods, a pattern of education often appears in the service of the individual, in the service of society, or in the service of government. In this article, by reviewing the lineage of Iran's formal education system in historical events and dominant rationality, we examined if the weakness or absence of society in Iran's formal education system before the Islamic Revolution has prevented the possibilities of formation of a unified collective identity. The findings showed that the content of the courses and the rationality of the educational programs acted in the direction of identity assimilation by eliminating the capital of identity pluralities. In addition, it is revealed that geography produces a special imagination that produces a kind of ethnic nationalism. The history lesson tries to construct a collective identity based on race by presenting an idealistic and mythical narrative of ancient history and a selective approach to historical periods and personalities. In addition, uniformity, by transcending geography and history, by spreading to all the objective and mental realms of the student, penetrated language and culture.

In this article, the authors try to discuss the status of political legitimacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran in the light of the emergence and expansion of the block chain technology as a social technology. First, it will be argued that the crisis of the government's efficiency is at the center of the legitimacy crisis of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the current situation, and the block chain is something more than anything else which can challenge or increase the legitimacy of the government in Iran. The authors try to discuss the possible positive and negative effects of the block chain on government efficiency in three areas: bureaucratic efficiency, economic efficiency, and social efficiency. Then, according to the current trends and approaches in Iran towards this emerging technology, two continuity scenarios and a change scenario will be designed. The final conclusion of the article is that the results of the emergence and expansion of this technology  for political legitimacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran are not determined and inevitable, but depend on the institutional contexts, strategic choices and prevailing governance methods and patterns.

AbstractSocial media brings the benefit to people to make their voices heard, an opportunity which was not accessible in the past. In this article, we have shown that this opportunity has led to the emergence of feminine religion. Women used to be less able to talk about religion - in terms of preaching, advices, explanations and interpretations - but through these networks they have been able to produce extensive content about their religion and religious beliefs. The feminine religion is not always reflected in the same fashion, of course, but in a spectrum of beliefs among the women active in the social media. We can consider all the contents in this area in one picture and discuss the emergence of a new opportunity in Iranian society based on the commonalities between the contents. We have shown that the expression of women in religious life with the help of new media has put the traditional institution of religion in a new position. In addition to the challenges it has caused, unparalleled opportunities are also created for religion continuation. At the same time, feminine religious expressions have played a role in limiting the spread of anti-religious sentiments and have achieved many of the desired goals of religious intellectuals in practice. This study examines the feminine mediatized religion presented on Instagram analyzing the discourses in Iranian women's narratives of religion. For this purpose, five Instagram pages have been examined using the Fairclough discourse analysis method. The results indicate the existence of a feminine religious structure which is characterized by search for oneness, call to life, and production of new teachings in the field of religion.

How to read and understand historical texts, especially in the field of philosophy and political thought, has always been one of the main concerns of researchers in this field. Because of the fear of persecution of governments on one hand, and the fear of the consequences of the general public's acquaintance with philosophical ideas on the other hand, have usually been the two main reasons for philosophers to write esoterically. There are different methods have been presented in the form of different hermeneutic branches to understand the purposes and intentions of writers and political philosophers, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. One of these unknown methods in Iran is the method proposed by the contemporary political philosopher Leo Strauss under the title of esoteric writing or reading/writing between the lines. In this article, I attempt to extract the generalities of this method and to describe its advantages and capacities in reading and understanding classical philosophical texts.

The generality and determinism of modern political society is a central issue in the present article. We have shown that modern political philosophy, due to the multiplicative nature of society, has become two camps of totalitarians in one hand and pluralists and non-believers on the other. But in our political society, despite the intensifying emergence of social pluralities, we are still locked in a homogeneous and generalized understanding of political society. Considering Mulla Sadra's role in founding contemporary Islamic political thought in Iran, we claim the possibility of reading Mulla Sadra's theory of unity of existence, which provides the possibility of considering the whole of political society simultaneously with the acceptance of individuality and otherness in its modern sense. In this reading, we draw on Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic model alongside the theory of Emmanuel Levinas, who can think of the capabilities of the text to solve our society's current problem and address zeal.

This article focuses on the issue of authority and its relation to the modern free subject in Iran today. The hypothesis of the paper is that the political organization of the Iranian society from the time of the arrival of modern times, with the exception of a model, is not possible with a model of the relation between the authority and the subject of the modern society. The failure of this model has been an explanatory factor of political legitimacy in modern Iran. Of course, various attempts have been made to construct this duality in such a way that it can be argued that only ideas in the political arena of Iran have played a role in establishing a relationship between the modern Iranian subject and a model of political authority. In this article, the author tries to demonstrate that the intellectual heritage deriving from Dr. Ali Shariati's thoughts, although he himself needs to be criticized, provides a preliminary plan for rethinking political authority and modern subjects in today's Iran. This article specifically explores the relation between subject and authority in Dr. Shariati's thoughts.

The key problematic of this paper is to reach a solution to link three sources of reproduction of legitimacy in Iran: ancient Iranian tradition (Pre-Islamic), Islamic tradition and modern pattern which is based on people. It’s necessary to propose two presupposition: 1) Dictatorship or democracy are contradictory terms to describe surrounding countries. Such dualism of political systems prevents deep understanding of complexities of third world countries (developing countries). In order to better comprehend the circumstances which are neither fully democratic nor dictatorship, western theorists articulate terms such as transient regimes or semi-democratic or quasi-democratic regimes. Such naming again prompts a dualist mentality and centers understanding around the notion that if a country is not totally dictator, it is moving toward a democratic model and will soon be a democratic country. Such dual pattern has led to epistemological problems regarding understanding complicated situation of Islamic countries and therefore it has been difficult to face their problems practically. In fact, in Islamic countries complicated systems of traditional heritage are active and current changes do not mean that these systems are declining or weakening. Nevertheless, democratic and modern institutions exist too.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The approach to this paper is that we need to follow names that are situated outside such dualisms and hence we have chosen the term “Hybrid Regimes”. In hybrid order we are faced with institutions and arrangements that are conformed to democratic patterns and are legitimized through peoples’ votes. At the same time, there are institutions that are legitimized through tradition, culture and history. 2) Often this question is raised that what are hybrid regimes’ legitimization patterns. We argue that legitimization pattern as a theoretical action contains logical cohesion and follows a theoretical foundation, but in practice politically based systems draw legitimation from different sources and therefore practical patterns of reproduction of legitimacy has always been hybrid. But unfortunately in the context of political conflicts, to vilify and ostracize the rival, actors have followed the logic of theory rather than committing to practical necessitates.
Regarding the above prerequisites we will tend to the current problem of legitimization in Iran which relates to people as fundamental foundation of modern legitimization and to Islamic-Iranian heritage. In intellectual and political struggles of last one hundred years, we have faced many narratives of legitimacy which have prioritized one of three resources of legitimacy and through rejection of others have created gaps in political arena. Is it possible to embrace all various legitimization foundations in politics of Iran in an organizing pattern without marginalizing any of these resources?
Finding: In this paper we show that both Iranian and Islamic heritage of political theory are apt for believe in people as legitimization force, but based on Iranian narrative, role of the people is defined as a particularistic system and cannot occur in a national arena. In Islamic tradition, peoples’ role is seen as universal. But in contrast to Iranian tradition, Islamic tradition accepts a conservative non-idealistic role of people.
Originality/Value: The result of this paper is new. This paper studies the possibility of mixing these two traditions, assuming that the mixture of these two traditions can reach to a modern legitimization pattern that draws from both Iranian and Islamic traditions.

The dominant perception about intellectualism in Iran is that it is a barrowed phenomenon and resulted from a lack. This perception acts as an obstacle for paying attention to the internal circumstances of intellectualism. The authors claim that intellectual identity is understandable only by considering Iran''s pre-intellectual experience (ancient world) besides intellectual experience in the West. In the current researches، the emergence of Iranian intellectuals is analyzed under the effect of communications between Iran and the West، but this phenomenon would not be possible without happening some changes in the formation of ancient thinking. By analyzing theological debates among Sadraie، Sheikhie and Babie theological thought in the pre-intellectual era، this article will indicate that how these debates have culminated in emerging intellectual thinking as a new intellectual language. The analysis of theological debates in the pre-intellectual era indicate that sacred knowledge as an objective matter was vanishing، naturalistic perception of the universe and man was developing، the positive science replaced sacred knowledge، and the language of theology was secularized. These factors paved the way for emerging the phenomenon of intellectualism by creating a bed for non-theological thought.

The present study closely examines the relationship between the female body and the political structures in the discourse of the Iranian Islamic Revolution. More specifically, Foucault’s Theory regarding the relationship between power and body as well as the empirical study of the symbolic aspects of the female body in relation to the revolutionary discourse are employed to arrive at a symbolic pattern of female body organization. The analysis indicated that the revolutionary discourse is associated with a specific pattern of female body surveillance according to the imperative social and political necessities of its evolution. The emerged revolutions in social context of intra-discourse and extradiscourse and the continuity of such association have led to challenges in the revolutionary discourse. Considering the importance and primacy of revolutionary discourse, it is essential to revise the internal structure of this discourse in order to release it from dependence on demanding signifiers. Finally, two strategies including ‘return to origin’ and ‘fundamental reconstruction’ are suggested.

The goal of this article is to highlight the role of the post-revolution urbanization in Iran and its effect on reproduction of the discourse of the Political Islam. In the past three decades, the smaller cities of Iran have undergone vast urbanization. Such development has introduced a fresh domain, compared to the larger cities and the rural areas, as new audiences seek religious teachings. Therefore, there has appeared a new consumer market for the narratives of the religious teachings in the outskirts of the larger cities, outskirts which strive to survive as margins, or satellites of the larger cities. The evaluation of statistical data obtained from smaller cities, as compared with similar data from the larger cities, show that changes in social consciousness in the smaller cities, as a result of urbanization, can be considered an important growing ground for the revival of the political Islam.